a little surprise!

Sometime last year while I was still in Japan, Mom found me the best seat sale we've ever seen to fly to Nova Scotia so she booked it for me and I paid her back when I got home... what an awesome decision that was! I kept it a secret, and only told my aunt who is the official 'airport pick-up driver' about a week before my flight.

So... last Monday, I flew to Nova Scotia and surprised my family and friends that I haven't seen for 7 years! I had an amazing time shocking people... it's a family tradition ;)

I had a wonderful time with my family and some church friends. So many precious memories were soaked in. I loved every minute of my time there and the week went way too fast!

Here's the video I took when I walked into my grandparents' house...



So much fun!! :)

and here's just a few of the pictures I took...

I spent the evening with Gwen, Eric, Gillian and Jennifer- friends from church (Gillian is like an older sister to me because she became part of our family when she drove from NS to Saskatchewan when we moved there in 95) We had an incredible time together... I have not laughed that hard in a long time! We skyped Mom and Dad and got them in on the party too! What a blast! and what a blessing that good friends are!

More special church friends from way back... Barb and Larry :)

Had to include this one even though it's almost the same as the last one, but I love the joy that was captured :) I don't remember what was said to make us all laugh, but I love this picture!

Part of the gang that went out for lunch at Wendy's after church :)

This is Victoria Park in Truro... Lissa and I used to go there lots in the summer with Grammie Purdy :)

My lovely second cousin and special friend, Laura :)

Long, long friends... together again!

Auntie Debbie (Dad's sister)

Enjoying the sunny day at my aunt Lorraine's house (Dad's other sister) with Grammie and Lorraine

I got to see my cousin Christopher... sounds sad, but I don't remember the last time I saw him. (he's got a unique character...)

Enjoying some time with Grammie and Grampie (Dad's parents)

And enjoying some time with Mom's side of the family at Auntie Chris's house... these are my cousins, Brett and Blake

Auntie Michele and Brett looking at a decorating magazine with Grammie Purdy :) (yes, Chris's house is always this fabulous!)

Hope that gives you just a tiny taste of my special week! I had a fantastic time... but it was so short!

On the way home, I had a 10 hour layover in Montreal so I ended up meeting up with our old neighbours that Melissa used to babysit for (their kids were 3 and 4 and now they are 16 and 17 I think!) I got to do a little sight seeing so that was great! Boy was I exhausted when my plane finally landed in Winnipeg just after midnight! I was SO ready for bed and slept quite well last night! :)

That's about all I can think of to say about my trip. Thanks to everyone who put me up for the night with little to no notice :) I had a wonderful time with everyone! Can't wait to come back again... hopefully not 7 years from now!

My little love story...

I've been meaning to do this for a long time, but somehow I keep forgetting! Today I finally posted pictures of the little book that Bobby created for me when he proposed! It's absolutely amazing! He's so creative and I just felt the need to brag about him :) I posted them on Facebook because it would take forever to do it on here, so you can find them here

I've said it before, but I'll say it again because I don't say it enough! God has blessed me with an amazing fiance! Bobby is incredible. He's sweet, romantic, kind, thoughtful, wise, smart, respectful, and so much more! He's a great example to me and has helped me grow in so many ways. I espcecially admire his passionate love for the Lord and how he displays it in all areas of his life.

Just thought I'd share just a glimpse of the amazing blessing that God has brought into my life!

I love you, Bobby Baden!!

wordle...

One of my friends just posted a wordle picture (makes a picture of a bunch of words from a website or text, and the more frequent a word, the larger it is) she created based on her blog. I had never heard of it before, but it looks really cool! Of course, out of curiosity, I did the same thing. Here's what mine turned out like...

(click to make larger)

I'm not really surprised by it... I think it's a pretty accurate description of my life (except the random words like now and just... apparently I use those a lot!) and I'm pleased to see the words like wonderful, blessed, joy, God, love, and (of course) wedding that did show up bigger :)

Anyway, I just thought this was really neat so I thought I'd post it... you should try it out too! (http://www.wordle.net/)

so many smiles and much to be thankful for :)

Well, I think I've officially failed at maintaining my Smile Lists since I left Japan! I do still very intentionally thank God for the things that make me smile each day...

Recently I've enjoyed reconnecting with some friends from High School and it's been so wonderful! A lot of my thankful smiles have come from those times of catching up! True friends are such a blessing!!

Wedding plans are still pretty much "my life" these days... just 60 days now!!!! Time is going so fast, and the excitement just keeps growing as details are coming into place! The invitations are in the mail, I had my hair trial on Saturday, found material for my flower girl and bridesmaid dresses, and potentially have a cake/cupcake maker! God is taking such good care of us and providing for us in so many ways!

We've created a wedding website with all of the details of our wedding... please check it out!

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/HillaryTimmons&BobbyBaden

Please don't be offended if you don't get an invitation in the mail... we are having an open ceremony and want all of our special friends to be there, but we could only send out so many invitations! If you do plan to attend, please let us know (BobbyandHillary@gmail.com or through the website) as it will make our lives a little easier as we continue to plan.

Things are also falling into place as far as plans for the future. I've applied to Providence and we've already got a place through student housing there! Life is just really exciting these days and God is SO good to us. I can't say it enough... I am abundantly blessed!

We are still trying to figure out immigration details for Bobby's year in Canada and return to Japan. Please keep praying about that with us.

That's pretty much it! Let me know what's going on in your life! Have a lovely week!! :)

rainy days...

I just love rainy days... when I have nowhere to go that is!

Today is a gloomy, rainy day... but I absolutely love it! There's just something so cozy about the rain. One of my favorite things to on rainy days is get into my comfiest clothes, turn on the fireplace, make a cup of tea and curl up on the couch with a blanket and a book. I love being able to just stay at home on a rainy day, and that's what I get to do today... let's just say I hear the couch calling my name right now!

:)

Birthday blessings :)

Birthdays are wonderful :) How fun it is to get spoiled and reminded that people love you!

My birthday was on Monday and I had a great one! I'm definitely feeling well loved by many! It was a pretty normal day for me... didn't really do a whole lot during the day. Did some work on invitations, tidied up a little and watched some TV. Talked to my sister and my grandparents on the phone at dinner time and then went out for a lovely dinner at Applebees (my favorite!) with my Mom and Dad :) (Much to Dad's delight and my embarassment, I even got sang to and received a free dessert!)

One of the highlights of my day was something very unexpected! I got a flower delivery! I got a call earlier in the day from a florist asking if I was going to be around for a couple of hours becuase their delivery guys were running behind. So, all day I got to play the guessing game wondering who sent me flowers! Turns out, they were from Bobby! :)

I was thrilled! I love flowers SO much... and I've never gotten them delivered to me before! It was fun :) Here's a glimpse of my beautiful birthday present all the way from Japan...


I am so blessed... I have an amazing fiance! I certainly wasn't expecting this because he had already given me a birthday gift when he was here!

Anyway, just thought I'd say thanks to everyone who made my day special! Thanks for taking the time to make me feel loved! Have a good week! :)

PS- 72 more days!!!

Give me Jesus...

I just have to say this... we've moved into the 70's in our countdown to the wedding now... just 79 days now!

Ok, I'm sorry my blog posts have been centered around the wedding... I'm trying hard not to get lost in all the little wedding details like flowers, dresses, invitations, guest lists, venues, etc and lose focus of why we're actually planning this special day, but since my world is basically consumed by wedding plans for now, that's all I have to blog about! But, today I've got something to blog about. Something I wanted to share from my quiet time today...

Something hit me today. Something that I've always known, but so often taken for granted.

I am so blessed. God is so good! He has given me a wonderful life with so much to be thankful for. If I was to list all the things I'm blessed to have in my life, my fingers would get sore from typing and your eyes would dry out looking from at the computer screen too long!

Seriously, I couldn't ask for a better life. I couldn't be much happier than I am right now! (People tell me it gets even better when you're actually married so I'm leaving room for improvement!) :P

This afternoon when I was taking a break from printing wedding invitations, I came into my room to hear this Jeremy Camp song playing on the radio. It's always been one of my favorites, but as I watched a few of my most precious and beautiful pictures flash by on my screen saver, I took a minute to soak up God's goodness to me. So many wonderful friendships, a beautiful and loving family, amazing pictures of God's handiwork in creation... I am so blessed!



As the song was playing and I was thinking about all these blessings in my life, it got me to thinking about how often I end up loving my life a little too much... I lose sight of why I'm here in the first place and so quickly forget about what God has in store for me after I leave this world. Today just got me to thinking about the fact that if I think my life on this earth is so wonderful, how much more wonderful will my eternity in Heaven be?! It's going to be so wonderful that it's beyond my comprehension right now!

Another thing stood out to me in my quiet time that I think sort of ties into what I was just talking about, came from the introduction to Philippians written in my Bible:

"In contrast to happiness stands joy. Running deeper and stronger, joy is the quiet, confident assurance of God's love and work in our lives- that He wil be there no matter what! Happiness depends on happenings, but joy depends on Christ."

I'm not quite sure how to connect my two "lessons", but maybe you can...

I guess it just got me to thinking about whether I am filled with joy or happiness right now. If all these wonderful blessings in my life were to suddenly disappear, would I still be as content as I am right now? Would I be content and truly "happy" if all I had was Jesus, like the Jeremy Camp song talks about? Do I currently have joy in my life or is it happiness?

I know it's easier to say this when life is so good and I'm not really facing any trials in my life, but I believe that right now, my heart is filled with joy! Yes, I'm happy, but it goes deeper than that. Jesus is my source of joy!

Thank you Jesus for the gift of joy. Thank you that no matter what our circumstances may be, you abundantly give us joy. Help me to be a woman who exudes joy in my life in all I say and do! I love you!

I found it!!!

Guess what folks...

I found it! I found my dress today! It was even below what I was budgeting, and off the rack- just like I needed it to be :) God is so good! My family and I were all praying pretty hard today about finding what I needed/wanted, and God answered!

Mom and I went dress shopping today after my Dr's appointment and we ended up going to just two stores. The first store was great... it was my first time ever trying on a wedding dress (or any kind of "fancy dress"!) and the girl had a ton of fun picking dresses for me because I only had a vague idea of what I wanted. The only unfortunate thing was that she was having me try on $1300 dresses that I really liked, but obviously could NOT afford! We left having picked out 2 that I liked, but didn't make any promises of purchasing them.

Then we moved on to another store just down the road and had another great service experience. This time, I didn't try on as many dresses, but had a better idea of what I liked and didn't like. This place had WAY better prices and I was really impressed! I would recommend Theresa's bridal salon to anyone in a heartbeat! I only tried on about 5 or 6 dresses there, and I actually ended up choosing the very first one I tried on.

I really, really like it!! You have no idea how bad I want to post a picture of it but I can't!... it's torture!

It is really neat to see how God is providing for us and taking care of all the details I so easily get worried about. We've set Riverton Gospel Chapel as the location for the ceremony and things are just falling into place! We don't have a lot of money, but God is providing for us! (both in the way of people giving generous gifts and getting things on sale or less than we were expecting!)

So... with less than 3 months to go now, I'm getting more and more excited every day! What I love is that it's not just 3 months away from the wedding, but I'm 3 months away from spending nearly every day of the rest of my life with my best friend! (who happens to be the man of my dreams!) I am so blessed. SO blessed...

3 months from today...

...I'll be getting married! That's right... we've set the date! July 10th... just 91 days away!
This morning we took Bobby back to the airport and said our goodbyes. Although was incredibly difficult to watch him walk away, it was exciting to think that this is the last time we'll have to say goodbye in an airport! (The next time we see each other, we'll be travelling together!) Just 2 months apart now...

We had an amazing time together... a lot of laughs, special memories and family bonding!

Melissa and Brad were here for Easter weekend so they got to meet Bobby too. It was really fun to be a family of 6! Bobby fits in so well with everyone... almost too well! :P (just teasing!) and I think everyone is really excited to have him as part of our family.

It's amazing how fast 2 weeks go when you're having such a good time. We were able to get a lot of wedding planning done together which of course is fun, but stressful too. I'm certainly blessed to have a groom that really cares and is soooo helpful!

One of the many fun things we did while Bobby was here was a trip to Gimli. We basically just walked around and took pictures and just enjoyed a beautiful day by the water. Here's some of the pictures we took...

Can you tell how happy we are? :P (and that we like being goofy?)

I love this picture of Mom! They quite enjoyed the photo shoot and we got some good ones of them too... still so cute and so in love after 32 years of marriage!

Admiring my beautiful ring...

Can you tell which ones are posed?! :P (I'm a little awkard with photo shoots!)

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day together! God is so good to us and I'm so grateful for the time Bobby and I could have together over the last 2 weeks.

So I guess I'm doing pretty poorly at posting smile lists these days... but rest assured, I'm still smiling- just not as much today though :(

I'm sure I'll be plenty busy in the next 3 months, but I'm really, really excited about all the future holds! Oh, by the way... yesterday, I found out that I am officially a Christar missionary! :)

Guess I should get going since I haven't really accomplished very much yet today! Enjoy the beautiful weekend!

I'm getting married!! (and this is no April Fool's joke!!)

I'm sooooo excited to finally announce this:

I'm getting married! Bobby proposed to me yesterday at the Forks and I of course said YES!

So here's the details...

Wednesday started off as a pretty yucky, cloudy/rainy day but ended up turning into an absolutely fantastic sunny day! (I head it was about +17 and we actually both ended up getting sunburnt faces!) We headed off to the Forks around lunch time, and walked around for a little while. Then we found a nice little spot for a picnic, feasted on heart shaped cheese and pickle sandwiches and dill pickle chips, watching the geese and enjoyed the sunshine.

Then, Bobby said he had something for me... he pulled out a little homemade story that he wrote about a "little girl and a little boy" (us) and read it to me. After he finished, he said he had something else for me... he pulled out a little white box, got down on one knee, said a lot of sweet words about me, and asked me to marry him! I started crying as soon as he said my name! :P

I absolutely love my ring! My poor Bobby had little to work with in the surprise department as far as planning a proposal, but he did an amazing job of making it special and romantic! and... he chose the ring all by himself! (we had never looked at rings together)

At this point, we haven't set an official date, but we are aiming for this summer! Bobby will go back to Japan by himself in mid April but will come back to the States in June. In the mean time, I get to start planning!

I'm so excited and couldn't be happier. Only God could have brought us together the way He did! I am beyond blessed to have Bobby Baden as my fiance and I'm really excited to see how God will use us as we serve Him together. So much more could be said.... but I'm speachless! :)

Thank you Jesus for the wonderful life you've given me! :)

a belated birthday tribute...

In typical "Hillary style"... I managed to put off my Dad's birthday tribute and now I'm a day late! (Sorry Dad!) But... better late than never right?!

I have to start off by saying I think I have the best Dad in the world! He's the first one to admit he's nowhere near perfect, but in my opinion, he's pretty close ;)

I've made a lot of special memories with my Dad over the last 23 years... some are more vivid than others obviously, but they're still special. One of my favorites has always been going fishing in the early morning before he headed off to work. After Lissa was pooped on by a bird one time, it became a 'just Dad and Hill outing' :) Even though I've never been a morning person, I really enjoyed getting up and going fishing. I remember we always listened to Guardian or Petra (our "cool" music) cranked right up (guess that's how we woke up!) and sometimes even leaving the tape in and volume up just to give Mom a little surprise the next time she used the car ;) Sometimes... (ok, it was probably every time!) we stopped at Tim Horton's so Dad could get a coffee and I got a hot chocolate. Those were some special trips, Dad and I'll always be thankful that you were willing to take me with you on your fishing trips and I'll never forget your patience as you tied yet another lure on my line because I got the last one stuck in the mud or tied in with the reeds!

One other very significant time we had together was when we went to Uganda together. It was so special to have Dad share my passion, and see him be stretched in ways he never would have expected. What an incredible experience to be able to introduce him to my African family and show him around Mbale :) Thanks for beeing such a good sport and for displaying a willingness to step out of your comfort zone for the sake of spreading the Gospel. I loved seeing you so fired up after we had gone out with our teammates sharing our testimonies and saw people coming to Christ!

Another thing that I love about my Dad is his "soft side" and compassionate heart. He's always full of sympathy and always looking for ways to help people. He's a great listening ear and has a deep and genuine love for people.

Dad's also quite a trooper when it comes to the dates I drag him on... from taking me to the zoo to going to concerts, he's always willing to do anything to make me happy :) Here's two of my favorite pictures from one of our zoo dates..

Dad sure has taught me a lot of life skills over the years as well... how to throw a football and a baseball, how to drive, and how to love God with all your heart. Thank you Dad for the countless times you've given up your newspaper to play catch with me, put down a book to let me sit in your lap, and most of all, thank you for teaching me how to be a shining light to the world and love others as God loves us!

I love you Dad! Hope you had a fantastic birthday! I'm looking forward to making more memories with you in the years to come! :)

(any guesses who the better skater is??)

another addition of the Saturday smile list :)

Well hello again! Sorry for the lack of blogs... these days my life isn't too blog-worthy! I've been working on my Statement of Faith for Christar and that's pretty much it! I have certainly enjoyed being at home all week, being able to stay in my pj's all day... and also do things around the house to help out my Momma and make cookies for my Pappa :)

Anyway, I've tried my best to keep track of the things that made me smile this week and here they are...

-discovering that it is not a wise choise to have a blow drier and a straightener running at the same time! what can I say... I was trying to be efficiant with my time and I had my straightener warming up while I was drying my hair! Apparently the breaker didn't like that idea! :P

-spring!!

-finding a birthday present for Dad

-watching a pregnant Mom play with her son and a little bouncy ball on a lovely sunny, spring day

-the sun! funny how you don't realize just how much you love it until it goes away for a while and then comes back!

-laughter and 'inside jokes' with Mom and Dad

-having someone ask me in church during the greeting time how to say Good Morning in Japanese

-a wonderful Sunday afternoon nap :)

-a 3 hour phone call with Ang :)

-Heartland

-Minute to Win It

-The Amazing Race

-having an unlimited long distance plan for anywhere in Canada AND the States! (aka having the freedom to call someone special in Maryland any time I want!)

-wearing my new flip flops around the house just because... ok, so I'm weird... and a little anxious for flip flop season!

-crossing things off a to-do list

-accomplishing goals and finishing things!

-having someone to help me set goals and inspire me to meet those goals :)

-being able to open the windows... and hear birds chirping outside!

-discovering there's a Japanese church in Winnipeg!

-forgiveness

-yummy desserts!

-a spontaneous trip to the park and the mall with Sheila :)

-talking with Drew and Izzy on skype :)

-a big muscular man walking through Wal-mart holding two small potted rose plants..... awwww :)

-new hot pink nail polish for my toes :)

-perfectly timed e-mails ;)

-Mcdonald's breakfast... especially the hashbrown! (and the fact that it was brought home to me by Mom and Dad on Saturday morning)

There you have it... life is still good and I'm loving it!
On a side note... just 9 more sleeps till Bobby comes to Winnipeg! We're finally in the single digits! :) I think we're both equally excited about this visit and I'm pretty sure my family's looking forward to it too.
Have I mentioned that life is beautiful?! :) Hope you get some time to enjoy the sunshine today!

oodles of pictures and oodles of fun!!

I finally found a wireless connection so since it saved me a lot of time not having to transfer all the pictures to my parents' computer, I decided I better do this today before I get another scolding!

As I said in my 'teaser post', I had a fantastic time in Maryland! I really don't think it could have been any better. It was just a really special time for Bobby and I because we had been apart for 2 months. We were able to do a lot of talking and laughing, went on several dates (something we weren't really able to do a lot in Japan), and just enjoyed doing "everyday stuff" together like going to the grocery store and going to church together.

We also spent a fair amount of time with his family and it was really fun getting to know them. It was really good to meet his younger brother who is battling Leukemia right now (he was in the hospital the whole time I was there, but he got to go home the day after I left). I especially enjoyed spending time with Drew and Izzy, Bobby's nephew and niece. One day we (Bobby and I, his brother and sister in law and the kids) went to this place called "Family Place to Play" where they have a giant climbing structure and super fast slides as well as a few of those big play structures that are blown up with air. We sure had fun and we certainly laughed a lot as the kid was brought out in all of us! We all got a good workout that day and my stomach was aching for a few days after because I had been laughing so much!

Here's a glimpse of the fun we had... Drew and Izzy are SO cute!

Izzy and I...

Drew and I...

Izzy, cute as ever!

bouncing around...

these slides were ridiculously fast!! (I quickly found out why you have to sign a waiver when you go in!)

A few days after that, we went on a little road trip to Hershey, Pensylvania :) We had some Christar staff that we had dinner with about an hour away from there so we stopped at Hershey Chocolate World and a little Hershey history museum. It was really cool! Chocolate World is free (!) and they have a neat little tour that you go on that's kind of like a ride and it explains how they make chocolate. They also have a huge gift store (where we took this first picture) We also went to a 3D show about the history of Hershey. The whole experience was really cool and now I can say I've been to Hershey!

The first of many of our famous self portraits :)

We were having fun trying to get the sign in the background and then a kind stranger came and offered to help us out! :)

Another day we decided to go skating! I found it funny that we had been planning to go skating when Bobby comes to Canada but ended up doing it in Maryland! We had a lot of fun and actually had the rink to ourselves for at least 1/2 the time we were there. It was fun racing and pretending we were Olympic figure skaters :)

Thought this one was cool since it has both of our flags in it (and the Maryland flag!)

What a fine skater! :)

I needed a little break! (We skated for almost 2 hours!)

Then one day we went to Washington and went to some of the free (!) Smithsonian museums. We also went up the Washington Monument (free too!) which was really cool!

One of the views from the top...

Having fun at the bottom... (It was a little cold- can you tell we were freezing?!)

At the museum of natural history, we went to a 3D Imax movie about the ocean... I know, you're jealous because you wish you were as cool as we are!

Because my boyfriend is so amazing and knows how to make me smile, we went into the butterfly exhibit at the same museum and Bobby took some awesome pictures...

Then another day, we went to the zoo in Washington... which was free too! (How cool is that?!)

Couldn't resist posing for this one... and look,

I found my prince!!! :)

Yeah, that's right... we're so cool, you don't have to tell us!

After the zoo, we went home and got dressed up for our first "fancy date" and we went to the Cheesecake Factory :) It was really fun... and of course delicious! Unfortunately, no one was home to take a picture of us so we went for another self portrait :)

We clean up pretty good don't we?! :)

Then on Sunday, since it was such a beautiful day, we enjoyed some time outside at his parent's farm. Bobby took some fantastic pictures of his Mom's crocuses... these are just 2 of them...

We also took some pretty good ones of us... here's 2 of my favorites....

So there you have it... just a glimpse of the amazing time I had in Maryland! Thanks for the many memories, Bobby! I love you!

Now we're looking forward to Bobby's visit to Winnipeg at the end of this month! He'll even get to meet Lissa and Brad because they're coming for Easter :) Boy, it sure is fun being in love! I don't think I could be much happier than I am right now! God is so good...